I am lamenting the demise of a station in the Twin Cities. I readily admit my addiction to talk radio. Over the years it has mellowed, but I am a news junkie. There used to be a station that had all news, like a CNN Headlines news for the radio. I ALWAYS listened. (Told you… this is serious.)
Over the years I have tired of the blathering of some conservative talk shows, but picked up others with a more reasoned tone, along with listening to MPR because it actually had news.
One station in the Cities I listened to over the years was KSTP on AM1500. They worked hard to chase me away. Their morning drive shows actually talked politics and national news. Then, they got rid of those guys and went to guys who only wanted to make lewd comments, trying to compete with the local rock station morning format. That guy is as base as they come, and he has huge ratings.
That didn’t work for AM1500, either. I had quit listening by that time. I could catch Garage Logic in the afternoon and loved it. They also picked up the Twins.
Now… they’ve gone to all sports. ESPN. They pick up the national programs and give Garage Logic two hours in the afternoon. They’ve basically chased me away.
I am a HUGE sports fan. I love baseball, basketball, football… all of it. But sportstalk isn’t about talking sports any more. I’ve discovered why. It’s impossible to talk sports 24 hours a day.
When I lived in KC, there was a sports show that was one of the early forays into this type of format. It was three hours in the afternoon. That was it. They could then hit it hard. They could cover ground without repeating a lot of things. They could also actually TALK SPORTS because they didn’t have to fill air time. It was great.
Now?
How many times are you going to talk about Tiger Woods and his mess? How many ways can you REALLY analyze the upcoming draft?
So, “sports talk” is all about the narcissistic “hosts” and commercials. Today I was in the car a total of 15 minutes and tried to listen to “sports talk.” TEN MINUTES were given to commercials. At one point, it was over FIVE STRAIGHT MINUTES of commercials.
Another night a few months ago I tuned to the other “sports talk” station in town trying to see if a playoff game was on. I drove nine straight minutes listening to commercials before they got back to the “show.” No playoff game. Only more narcissistic babbling.
While I have blogged about the hopeful demise of the “search” for the historical Jesus, here is my hope that we witness the death of “sports talk” as well.
